County cancels bow hunt of deer at Blandair farm

February 28, 2003

Howard County has canceled plans for a bow-and-arrow hunt of about 150 deer that live on the 300-acre Blandair farm in east Columbia.

Although the hunt was scheduled to occur earlier this month, State Department of Natural Resources officials will not issue a crop-damage permit without inspecting damage to growing crops. That will not be possible until spring at the earliest, so the hunt is off, according to Phil Norman, deer project manager for the county Department of Recreation and Parks.

The county estimated 20 percent of crops grown on rented farm fields at Blandair south of Route 175 were lost to deer last summer - thus the idea for the hunt.